11. The Sword of Gryffindor

Harry awoke to see a huge white light standing over him. He awoke a bit further and discovered it was a shining pearl white doe. It pulled him up and carried him under its nose and, still bleary eyed, Harry realised that his mothers patronus was a doe, as was Snape's. The doe led him by the arm to a pond, where it ran off and returned with Ron walking behind. It faded and disappeared as they greeted each other warmly, and exchanged words of worry and regret.

"Who's patronus was that?" Asked Harry

"No idea, your stag turned up, told me you were lost, and not a moment later that doe was standing next to it. Just appeared." Ron made a big, waving movement with both his arms. "It mentioned something about a deep kind of magic and some stone, but I wasn't really listening."

"Ron! That could have been important!"

"I'm sorry Harry, I was just concentrating finding you. Anyway, the stag disappeared and the doe led me straight here."

They started wandering towards an interesting looking valley, just as the sun came over the tops of trees, until they came across an old, overgrown cottage that looked vaguely familiar to Harry. They strolled across the front 'lawn' if you could call it that, and looked at the fading sign that read "Gaunt". Now Harry understood why he knew it. He explained to Ron about the memories he had visited with Dumbledore and suggested they take a look to see if anything had changed. Ron grudgingly agreed and they entered the main room. Their eyes quickly adjusted to the gloom atmosphere and started looking through the mess. Ron fell over and looked as though he had seen a ghost. Harry quickly stumbled over to him and pulled him to his feet. "Are you alright?" He asked, shocked. Ron could do nothing but point to a pile of shiny things. Harry left him to it and started rummaging. He quickly found Ron's source of shock: the sword of Godric Gryffindor.

Nearly a week later, they arrived at the home of Professor McGonagall with an appointment to see a goblin. McGonagall greeted them like old students. That is, very sternly and lovingly at the same time. The goblin however, pretended they didn't exist until McGonagall forced him to answer. He glanced at the sword and said quite simply, "It's real." He then excused himself and left. McGonagall sat down, and sighed heavily. "I hope the two of you know what this means?" She sounded exasperated as always. "This means... there is a hidden agent lurking somewhere. A Death Eater, an admirer of Dumbledore's, who knows? But they need stopping, Potter. And fast. Hogwarts is being rebuilt and opened again in time for September. That gives you a few months to get this... thing stopped. Now, I bid you good day."